Yellow Tomato Cauliflower Lentil Curry with Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts & Spinach

Phew, what a title.
Followed by an incredibly ugly cell phone image *shudders* (left my camera at my old appartment, moved into a new one yesterday).
So as ugly as this might look, it was a wonderfully comforting food for a fucking cold day.



I mixed together about 4-5 cups cauliflower florets & brussels sprouts, ca. 3 cups of potato slices, a can of lentils, about 1 1/2 cups Yellow Curry Sauce, 1 cup chopped spinach, 2 cups tomato sauce and 1/2 onion. And I put some fresh chopped basil on top.
Perfection, seriously. Luckily I made enough to live off it for the next two days.

Ha ha, see that Katie? I took my chopsticks with me ;) I hold them in my very own and special - and no way near correct - way, but I somehow manage to have the food land in my mouth and not on my lap (the way it happened every single time someone tried to teach me how you're actually supposed to hold chopsticks... seriously can't be done) and that's what important, non?

Yellow Brussels Sprouts & Cauliflower Curry

Lately I've been craving either Thai or Indian food like crazy. Yesterday I bought a delicious - but quite expensive - Yellow Thai Curry Sauce and made brussels sprouts and cauliflower with it.



So this sauce has to be used within 4 days after opening.



Do you think it would go well added to Split Pea Soup (never had Split Pea Soup to begin with so I wouldn't know...) with some additional cauliflower?

Persian Food

Wow it's been quite a while... but I was internetless for quite some time. Aswell as lazy... ;)

First pictures from Berlin. We went to this vegetarian bistro/restaurant/caterer ALSA and the owner is persian and holy moly his food was extremly delicious. I even liked the rice&raisins combo, something I've always detested.
This was a vegan dish, eggplant casserole with beans, lentils, nuts and whatnot. So fucking amazing!!!



And a mix of salads he had left (we got there at around 4 and almost all the plates were pretty much empty already=good sign!).



Anywho, I finally had some money to buy food. Raspberries are so addictive ♥



Spinach with cucumber, raspberries and a surprisingly good tasting basil dressing (storebought dressings mostly suck... or maybe I just always pick the bad ones).



I've been trying to catch up with your blogs and the last days were simply horrible because I had no food/money/whatsoever and your pictures almost made me cry! And realize what amazing chefs each and every one of you would make (this is not neccessarily the starving person from a couple of days ago talking, he he). Anyone up for inventing beaming and starting a delivery service worldwide with amazing vegan food creations? ;)

Yummy Salad

Avocado with cucumber, tomatoes, mixed salad and white beans. What a filling and nice dinner!



And a delicious juice, mhhh!

Cookiemouse & some food I've been eating...

I wrote this post so long ago... anyway, here goes!

I met Leighton (aka Cookiemouse) at the Noordermarkt and got to learn how you get vegetables for free!



Here's the crowd being rewarded for all the waiting and grabbing lots of lovely organic produce.





She was very successful as you can see ;) And that's Cookiemouse in the back.



I got lots of zucchini from Cookiemouse (thanks again) so my dinner plans for the next couple of days are already set ;)

See? This is what I've been eating pretty much all the time. Rice, Salad, fresh tomatoes and steamed garlicy herbed string beans, zucchini, lima beans and tofu (came to the realization that I don't really need it so I'll save my money for other stuff instead of buying tofu).





His German was so good! He speaks amazingly well Schwäbisch which is funny because my mom originally comes from Schwaben and hearing him speak in this dialect totally reminded me of my childhood when we would visit my moms realtives and she would start speaking in that dialect again =)

Here's some more food. People at work told me about the BioMarkt and I stocked up on beans there.



The Jalow Bars were deeeelicious!!!



Other than beans I got Brocolli Sprouts and some fruit/fruit&nut bars and a Pumpkin-Lentil Soup that I've been living on for a couple of days. I tried to mix it up a little so I had it with some fresh tomato on top (I was out of everything else)



and then with broccoli sprouts & the last of Cookiemouses zucchini.



& a salad from De Bolhoed.

Amsterdam goes Members Only

Hey ho!

I decided to make my Amsterdam blog accessible for only the people I know, because stupidly enough I gave this address to some Americans yesterday who I actually do not want to be able to read this.
Same old story, they seemed nice and turned out to be creepy.

So let me know if you would like to be added =)

Lettuce Bean Veggie Salad

My this was a great lunch!



Lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, red cabbage, green garlicky beans with great northern beans and some ripped Falafel.



I'll have to make these kinds of salads more often! Especially now to take it to work with me.
When I arrived for the interview at Mattmo they had some sort of peperoni cut into pieces and asian crackers... the typical dutch snack, except there was no cheese. So yeah, I will definitely need to brin my own food, ha ha!

Oh btw, if anyone's interested I decided to make a blog for the time I'll be in Amsterdam. For friends and family to read so I won't have to email every single person.



I'm Loushka, in case you were wondering =p It's what basically everyone who knows me calls me.

Amsterdam Pictures from De Bolhoed

As I said, here are the pictures.

My sister & me in Vondelpark, expressing our joy that after 3 years of living apart we will finally be able to see each other again daily =D



Oh yeah and those white glasses.... I bought them in red and black aswell, ha ha! And no, I'm not balding, it's just a bad hairstyle =p

At De Bolhoed. My sister, looking still a liiiiiiittle bit sceptical, ha ha!



The salad was DELICIOUS! Although there were only two lettuce leafs, it contained some tomato-ish bulgur/rice/whatever, string beans in some delicious red creamy sauce, a mixed mush of black beans and avocado, sweet potato (my sister and I both didn't know what it was, but it was orange and sort of sweet so I guess it was a sweet potato), radishes, tomatoes and cucumber.



And oh, can anyone tell me what's on the top? I ate it aswell, but have no clue what it was exactly =p

I ordered hummus with pita (how boring am I) and it was delicious aswell. I wrapped up two pita halves and 3/4 of the hummus that was leftover to take home with me. The guy was so nice, he brought it back and had put some extra sprouts and a radish in there =)



My sister ordered what was called croissant something (sorry I can't name anything here, ha ha) that was filled with tofu, potatoes, some seaweed sort of thing and some more stuff and tasted very curry like. It was FANTASTIC! The dough was so crispy and the sesame seeds on top made it perfect.

And a picture of the dessert my sisters boyfriends mom made me. Beautiful presentation in a fancy glass and lovely fresh mint, non?

I'd love to browse all your blogs and catch up on what I've missed and most importandly comment, but I still have so many things to do until Sunday. I'll try to find the time, don't hate me!
Oh dear, what will it be like in Amsterdam without internet at home? =O The last week was hard already, I felt pretty much disconnected to the world, ha ha!

Lemon Lime Corn Waffles & Veggie Ricotta Lasagna

May I present you vegan waffles that were requested by a person who thinks soy milk will kill him.



That's right, my boyfriend asked for his own waffles (Jennifer, you can do the I-told-you-so dance now ;)) when he arrived at my apartment and saw me eating these Lemon Lime Corn Waffles with the most delicious strawberries & blueberries.



He had a few bites and declared he'd go for vegan waffles aswell. I made his with oil instead of apple sauce and white flour so they wouldn't be too healthy and scare him away =p

And here's a picture of the yummy Lasagna my mom & I made when my sister & her boyfriend arrived.



I had my vegan corner and the rest had regular lasagna. We used soy creamer instead of bechamel sauce and nobody noticed. I also crumbled my basil tofu ricotta inbetween the layers and nobody complained. I LOVED my part of the Lasagna, that's for sure!

Yumm yumm... and yes, I eat my Lasagna with applesauce ;)



Last night I made another dinner requested by my boyfriend: Potato Soup!
I had my mom's potato soup in mind which was very creamy and mild in flavor, but of course I improvised (as I pretty much always do) and got out something totally different, yet extremly delicious: Curry-Potato Soup!

I served this to my parents, my sister, her boyfriend and my boyfriend and everybody LOVED it! You know, when I started cooking my sister replied with an "Ew." when I said I'd be making potato soup, my mom said she wasn't hungry yet when dinner was ready everybody raved about it! Seriously, stuff like that makes me so happy, ha ha! I mean how often do you cook something and everybody likes it? I'll post pictures later, because I made a huge pot. Leftovers, hooray!!!

Other than that I want to apply for an internship in Amsterdam. I have found three agencies I'll apply at and I specifically favor one of them. Oi, please cross your fingers, I am so nervous! I really really want to do this, it would be like a dream come true!

Apparently I made an impact.

"I can't even imagine having a girlfriend who eats meat anymore! I got all puzzled when you told me what a meat lover your best friend is... it just seems so hard to believe now [that a girl likes meat]."

My boyfriend randomly said this the other day, ha ha!

Ping Pong Paddles & Vöner

"When he gets going he can rattle a headboard like a sailor on leave!"

Ahh, the joys of living in an apartment building! 

Last night my boyfriend and I spent some quality time listening to my new neighbour downstairs fucking his girlfriend like a madman, ha ha! Seriously, the walls & ground were literally shaking and it sure did sound like lots of spanking action was going on (I sensed a ping pong paddle was involved). 

She sure did get some good lovin' from what I heard... which was so loud that we might just aswell had been sitting right next to them. Kinda made me wonder if they were just really really reeeally loud or they can hear us just as well... 

Anywho, now for those who want to read about food instead of loud sex I am proud to say that, inspired by Mihl, I made a trip to Vöner. 

And I got THE LAST ONE! It was 22:15 (they close at 22:30) and there was basically nothing left so I asked if it was still enough for one Vöner. It was. 

Seconds later the guy behind me who knew the woman ordered a Vöner, too. She made a sad face and apologized. He was like "Noooo, I've been at work all day and was so looking forward to this!" She made him a fancy burger instead, all good!

I ordered it with garlic sauce and hot sauce. The hot sauce was amazing! Extremly hot though, my tummy ached afterwards. I think the garlic sauce may have been made with tahini. The consistence kind of reminded me of the tahini sauce they put on falafel.

I apologize for the mess that I call "pictures". Cell phone camera at night... need I say more?

Now I've tried Seitan only once before and wasn't too blown away by it. This time the taste was great, but it were huge chunks (not the thin slices you get in real Döner), but that was only because there had been so little left over that there was no way to make thin strips out of it. While chewing I was like "This kind of reminds me of Leberkäse!" Once again I realized I'm not a fan of meat substitutes, especially if it's big chunks like that. 

Since it was so chunky and therefore too much for me and my boyfriend didn't want them (he tried the Vöner and loved the sauces and said the Seitan was quite alright, too) I started picking out Seitan strips. 

And honestly, I felt bad! Because when I looked down I figured the guy behind me could've easily gotten his Vöner. And Mihl could've gotten more Motor.

I'm off to make Lasagna now since my sister will be here soon! She's gonna stay for a week, hooray!!!

Ricotta Filled Pasta Shells With Beets & Borscht

What a perfect lunch! I had craved this for aout a week now and finally made it: pasta shells filled with VwaV's Tofu Basil Ricotta with chunky beets and borscht.



This time I pureed some beets to make it a little thicker.



Yummm!

Cocoa Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles & Italian Inspired Veggie Tomato Stew on Brown Rice

Oh man, for dessert last night I made - you guessed it - WAFFLES again! Sadly no picture since I was charging my batteries.

I can't help it but get excited everytime I say the word waffles, ha ha! I look up into the air and look like Spongebob...



I made Cocoa Chocolate Chip Banana Waffles.
Had them with maple syrup (heavenly) and fresh raspberries, banana slices and blueberries (whatever comes after heavenly, this was it)

Ingredients (for 2 waffles)

3/4 cup flour (I use spelt)
2 heaped Tbsp. natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup soy milk (I used Soy Macchiato which gave it a lovely coffeeish flavor)
1 Tbsp. mashed banana (I used about 1/4 of a big one)
2 tsp. maple syrup (more or less depending on the sweetness of your milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract (optional)
2 Tbsp. chopped chocolate or chocolate chips

This was chocolate heaven on a plate. Seriously, waffles combine everything awesome: crispyness/chewyness of cookies and doughyness like pancakes or cupcakes.

I know I will make these again! Probably tonight, because how else could I use up the leftover half banana? Ha ha! I'm also thinking of cutting up cherries and throwing them into the batter... mhhh!


For dinner I cooked up some brown rice and threw together a bunch of vegetables to accompany it.

I used
- 2 cans of tomatoes in juice
- 2 chopped onions
- 5 crushed cloves of garlic
- 1 huge zucchini, chopped
- some leftover frozen italian vegetable mix which fit very well (it was zucchini, onions, string beans, bell pepper, mushrooms (eh!) and black olives seasoned with oregano)
- 1/2 cup frozen spinach
and seasoned everything with thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper.

It was very garlicky, but not in an overpowering way. Very delicious, the rest agreed with me!



My dad asked my mom for Parmesan cheese, but there was none. I couldn't really feel for him because I had tons of nutritional yeast to sprinkle over my food ;)
Seriously, sprinkling nooch on stuff makes it so much better, at least if one's looking for a cheesy kind of flavoring.



My boyfriend even asked for another serving at 1 AM. Ha ha! Luckily I still have a small serving leftover for myself tonight.

Chocolate Blueberry Lemon Corn Waffles

The WAFFLE HYPE continues!

An adaption of VwaV's Lemon Corn Waffles turned into Chocolate Blueberry Lemon Corn Waffles by adding about 2 Tbsp. blueberries and chocolate chips each. The batter turned out a little thick though, but they tasted good nevertheless!



My mom got me elderberry jelly from her trip. So sweet! And it was quite good, too!



I had my waffle with raspberry jam and the elderberry jelly because I was all out of fruit.



Gotta get back to work! I'll check your blogs & comment later. Oh, good morning and happy monday, btw!

Chocolate Chip Ginger Waffles & Lemon Corn Waffles

The 40 € I spent on my new waffle maker/sandwich maker/grill were well invested!

Today as a pre-dinner snack (odd I admit, but I craved some yummy waffle-berry action) I had Ginger Chocolate Chip Waffles with selfmade apple-mango puree, red grapes, blueberries and raspberries.
The combination of ginger and chocolate really has become a new favorite of mine ;)



I used Jennas recipe for Chocolate Chip Whole Wheat Waffles, using spelt flour, a Tbsp. of apple-mango puree instead of oil, an additional Tbsp. corn meal and 1/2 tsp. ground ginger (definitely could've used more).



They were devine!



I wish I had my own Niles at home who'd bring me a plate like this to bed every morning!



Yesterday I invited my Dad over for some Lemon Corn Waffles (from VwaV).



Lots of fruit on the side (honeydew, watermelon, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, apple, grapes and banana) and a soy macchiato of course...



... aswell as strawberry jam... (can't you just feel the crispyness from looking at this picture?)



... and apple-mango puree (1/4 cup mango chunks blended with 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce)



Nothing beats those crispy crunchy fantastic Lemon Corn Waffles!!! Especially with blueberry sauce as she recommends.

I'm off to cook soon. My mom's coming back and I'll make Pesto Spaghetti (they also taste incredible on their own) with Pesto and my standard salad: lamb's lettucce with mango and roasted sunflower seeds!

Hope you had a nice weekend! =)